Future Prairie Radio

Professor Matt Schumacher on moving play into process, how to manage a tenuous artist collective during an economic crisis, the importance of creating art during crisis, and how poetry can support the community during challenging times.

Designer, printer, and educator John Akira Harrold on responding to what interests you, finding a political home while grappling with wokeness, and developing personal politics as an artist.

Visual artist and musician Daren Todd on unearthing buried Black history, expressing through art, and letting go of expectations through the creative process.

Trans poet, curator, and artist An Duplan on accessibility in art, Afrofuturism, and driving social change through community building in the arts.

Artist and entrepreneur Marceau Michel on self-discovery, the process to liberate oneself from outmoded ways of thinking, and raising ten million dollars for Black Founders Matter, a venture fund for black entrepreneurs.

Musician Jonny Cool on spiritual music, ancestor work, and weaving family and future into all of his projects.

Composer, professor, and activist Darrell Grant on the love of jazz, love of community, and the mythology of Portland, Oregon.

Painter Arcadia Trueheart on her project "Handmade Stories Live", a multi-media theater performance that invites the audience to explore how our hands hold formative and enduring stories about who we are and our role in the world.

Perfumer Kelly Harland on founding her small-batch fragrance house, Crosby Elements, which is known for botanical, naturally-derived scents inspired by travel, nostalgia, and intuition.

Award-winning filmmaker Kanani Koster on reclaiming nostalgic tropes and aesthetics for diverse audience members who've historically been left off-screen.

DJ and speaker designer Michael Davis-Yates on “Custom Mathematics”, a series of speakers he designed and hand-built from the ground up, inspired by teachings from the Nation of Islam as well as the spirit classic vintage boomboxes.

Painter Ameera Saahir on her series of paintings called “Uninhabitable Living Conditions”. The pieces connect historical images of slave ships and sharecropping with transitional housing for African Americans.

Slavic Shamanic performance artist, herbalist, and certified firewalking instructor Olga on her choice to spend most of her days in silence.

Architecture evangelist Claire Blaylock on environmental justice, program development, and designing built environments for the post-pandemic world.

Sculptor, painter, and community organizer Matt Manalo on his work and explorations of home and identity as a first-generation immigrant. His work considers the colonization of the Philippines by Spain, Japan, and the United States, which has resulted in erasure, colorism and a pervasive colonial mentality.

Multidisciplinary artist and animator Matt Dan on building a dystopian point-and-click adventure game set near the Nike brand headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.

Artist, athlete, and community organizer Alex Schmidt on founding @DykeSoccer, @BodyConfidence, and @QueerSpeedCruising.

Photographer Emery Barnes on making art at #BlackLivesMatter protests in Portland, Oregon.

Urban designer Heather Flint Chatto on environmental design, street art, civic planning, and the future of collaborative policymaking.

Poet Nastashia Minto on being a queer, Black, socially-responsive poet, writer, musician, student, and teacher.